
iA^J 








MacalestekCollegfXontribitioss; 



Department of History, Literature, and 
Political Scienxe. 




3f-^ 



Every man is a valuable member of society who, by his observations, researches, and experiences 
procures knowledge for men." — Smilhson. 



NUMBER FIVE. 



The Earliest Contest in America ox Charter-Rights, 

Begun A. D. 1619, in Virginia Legislature: 

With Documents Now First Printed. 



By Ed\vard D. Xeill, D. D. 



SAINT PAUL, MIXX.: 

The Pioneer Press Company. 

1S90. 



TO 

JOHN S. M. NEILL, A. B., 

of Helena, Montana, 

Whose interest in early American History 

has caused the publication of 

this Monograph. 



THE EARLIEST CONTEST ON CHARTER-RIGHTS IN AMER- 

ICA, BEGUN A. D. 1619, IN VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE : 

WITH DOCUMENTS NOW FIRST PRINTED. 



By Edward D. ^N^eill, D.D. 



The first controversy in America as to charter-rights began in A. D. 
1619, in the Virginia legislature, occasioned by the demand of Cap- 
tain John Martin, that the burgesses from Martin-Brandon should be 
admitted to seats. 

Martin's father, Sir Richard, was among the honored and enterpris- 
ing citizens of London. In 1577 he was warden of the Eoyal Mint, 
and subscribed fifty pounds sterling to send out another expedition to 
the northern seas of America, in which Martin Frobisher had sailed, 
in the hope of finding a passage to a rich Cathay. In 1583 he was 
high sheriff of London, and a chaplain of the East India Company; 
in his diary, under dateof Maix-h ll,O.S.,he wrote : "Dined at Sheriff 
Martin's, in Milk street, where was Dr. Julius Caesar, who married 
his daughter." 

Before the death of Queen Elizabeth he was lord mayor, and in 
1606, when the expedition for Virginia under Newport was prepar- 
ing, he was director, or master, of the mint. 

His son John left his wife, and, with a son, joined the emigrants 
to Virginia, and when they reached the Chesapeake bay, upon open- 
ing certain orders, it was found that the London Company had desig- 
nated him as one of the first councillors. 

During the first year at Jamestown, he grumbled at the adminis- 
tration of President Wingfield, and said that " he had friends in 
England who would be revenged upon him if ever he came to Lon- 



146 



Macalester College Contributions. 



don." The scant supply of food, bad water, and low, malarial position, 
during the first summer, caused the death of many, and, among others, 
the son of Martin. 

Councillor Eatcliif, on the tenth of September, 1607, was chosen, 
president, in place of Wingfield, who was deposed. James Eead, the 
blacksmith, in consequence of an altercation with him, was sentenced 
to be hung, but saved his life by making known a projected mutiny 
under the leadership of Councillor Kendall, who was tried and found 
guilt}'. Katcliff, whose real name was Sickelmore, refused to execute 
the sentence, but Martin took his place and had him "shot to death." 




SEAL OF COUNCIL FOR VIRGINIA. 



Captain John Smith, of the council, in Octol»er, 1609, was sent to 
England to answer for some misdemeanors; Katcliff, not long after, 
was killed by the Indians, and then John Martin was the only one of 
the first council left in Virginia. 

The London Company received, in 1609, an enlarged charter, by 
which the mode of governing the Virginia colony was modified, and 
Lord Delaware was chosen governor general. He arrived in June, 
1610, at Jamestown, and appointed Captain John Martin master of 
the iron works ; but he did not secure the respect of the governor. 



Local Legislation Allowed Colonists. 147 

He was in London during; the winter of 1616-17, and, in a small ves- 
sel, returned the following; June to his plantation. A few months 
after his visit, in August, his aged and esteemed father died. A cor- 
respondent of Sir Dudley Carleton, under date of Oct. 18, 1617, wrote: 
'.'Sir Edward Villiers, they say, shall be master of the mint, an office 
lately void by the death of Sir Eiehard Martin, who was held near a 
hundred years old." 

Captain Martin, while in England, in an ii-regular manner obtained 
a patent for a plantation, under which his people would be exempt 
from the orders of the colonial authorities. It proved "the cave Adul- 
1am, and every one that was in distress, and every one that was in 
■debt, and every one that was discontented gathered themselves unto 
him, and he became a captain over them." The plantation was known 
as Martin-Brandon, situated on the lower shore of James river, at 
Chapoak creek, and Captain John ^yard, in 1619, established a planta- 
tion in the immediate vicinity. 

The London Company, after Sir Edwin Sandys became the pre- 
siding officer, was disposed to grant the colonists every liberty 
possible. At a regular quarterly meeting at the house oF Sir Edwin, 
near Aldersgate, held on the second of February, 1619, O. S., a patent 
was granted to John Pierce and his associates to transport certain 
people to Virginia, who subsequently sailed in the ship May Flower, 
and on that day, by general consent, it was voted that the leaders of 
particular plantations in Virginia be allowed to associate with them- 
selves the gravest and discreetest of their companies for the purpose 
of making ordinances and constitutions, provided they were not 
repugnant to the laws of England: and before this they had also 
■directed that there should be an annual legislative assembly in Vir- 
ginia, to be composed of the governor, council, and two burgesses 
from each plantation, to be freely elected b}^ the inhabitants thereof. 
The first legislatui-e in North America assembled on the thirtieth of 
July, 1619, at Jamestown, more than a year before Pierce's people 
landed at Plymouth Rock. The plantation of Martin-Brandon 
elected Thomas Davis and Robert Stacy as their representatives, but 
their names were not called on the day of organization, because the 
patent of John Martin exempted the people, who sent them as dele- 
gates, from obeying any order of the colonial authorities, except in 
times of war. On the second of August, Martin came before the house 



148 Macalester College Contributions. 

and to the question of the speaker, whether he would relinquish the 
objectionable clause in his patent, he replied that he would not, and 
the assembly then declined to recognize the delegates of Martin- 
Brandon as members. 

The controversy was soon transferred from Jamestown to London, 
where Martin had a strong family influence. His brother-in-law, Sir 
Julius Cffisari, was master of the rolls and a member of the King's 
Privy Council. 

On the seventeenth of May, 1620, O.S., Mr. Martin is noted as being- 
present at the regular quarterly meeting of the London Company. On 
the thirteenth of March, 1621, 0. S., Isabel Eead, the widow of the black- 
smith who was pardoned at Jamestown for information which led to 
the execution of Councillor Kendall, by the sentence imposed by John 
Martin, as councillor, complained to the company that Martin had 
not satisfied her for goods which came into his hands, and which he 
sold. She was directed to visit Martin and request his answer. On 
the same day, a committee made the following 

REPORT AS TO MARTINS PATENT, 

to be presented to the Privy Council: 

" Eight Honorable, whereas at a great and general quarter court 
for Virginia, held the 30th of January last, there was presented to the 
said court a certificate on the behalf of Captain John Martin, in the 
name of the Council and Comjiany of his Majesty here resident, con- 
taining a declaration of his worth and services, and thei-eby reporting 
him to be worthy to enjoy the patents and privileges therein granted 
unto him, subscribed by some honorable persons and others, divers of 
whom the Company conceiving not to be fully informed of the truth 
of all passages in that business, have, thei-efore, thought it their duty 
to give unto them, and particularly unto your Lordships, a true account 
of the state and carriage thereof 



1 Sir Julius Cfesar, born in 1558, was the son of an Italian physician, Cfesar Adelmare, who was a 
naturalized English citizen, and one of Queen Elizabeth's medical advisers. His sons took the name 
of Caesar. Julius was educated at Oxford, and, in 1584, received the degree of LL.D. In 1588 was 
master of chancery. In 1603 was made a knight. In 1606 member of the privy council and chan- 
cellor of exchequer. In 1614 master of the rolls. Bacon, Lord Verulam, made him a supervisor 
of his will. On Feb. 23, 1581, O S., he married the widow of Richard Lusher of the Middle Temple, 
a sister of Captain John Martin. Before 1595 she died. 



Report as to Validity of Martin's Patent. 149 

" May it please your Lordships, therefore, to be advertised ; that 
whereas the said Company are limited aiul directed by his Majesty's 
letters patent, to four great and general quarter courts only, for pass- 
ing of all matters of greatest weight, particularly for disposing of the 
land in Virginia, and as being a fundamental law was notoriously 
known to all the Company, and for further caution hath been from 
time to time accordingly declared to the planters as an ordinance from 
his Majesty to be inviolably observed. 

"Contrarj^ hereunto there was presented at a private and inferior 
court two several patents ready engrossed, the committee not being 
afore acquainted with them, the one constituting the said Capt, 
Martin the Master of the Ordnance, the other containing a grant of 
land unto him, his heirs, executors and assigns, by which private 
court called extraordinarily, and as by the effect appeared for that 
only business, the said patent was unlawfully and unduly passed, 
notwithstanding the dislike of divers then present, but yet never had 
the confirmation of a Quarter' Court. 

" Secondly, the said patent for land doth contain a grant of divers 
exorbitant privileges, and transcendent liberties, to Capt. Martin, ap- 
parently repugnant to justice and the good government of the general 
plantation, which the Company b}' His Majesty's patents to them 
could not gi'ant, as mainly the exemption of all the people within his 
lands from the government of the Governor and Council in Virginia, 
and from all other services of the whole colony there, except in case 
of war, and also a grant of unlimited fishing, and also a fifth part of 
all rich mines, and to enjoy all other mines found by him, his heirs, 
or assigns, and of common marts to be erected at his pleasure, and 
many other general indefinite liberties, as appeareth in the said pat- 
ent : by color of which exorbitant patent many great inconveniences 
have followed to the Company and colony, as in particular Capt. 
Martin's refusal to submit himself to the laws and orders of the col- 
ony in Virginia. 

"And that this plantation is made a receptacle and harbor of dis- 
ordered persons who subterfuge thither from ordinary justice. All 
which, and many other mischiefs have been often complained of by 
the colony at their particular and general assemblies, and by the gov- 
ernors there, and most grievously by Captain Argall himself, their 
governor, by his letter to the Company; notwithstanding his own sub- 



150 Macalester College Contributions. 

«cription to Captain Martin's said certificate in approbation of the 
said patent. Upon which letter an order was made in a great and 
general quarter court, in May, 1618, and a committee appointed to 
examine and reform the said patent; there being present at that 
court. Sir Thomas Smith and Mr. Alderman Johnson, then treasurer 
and deputy of this Company, so that it seemeth strange to the Com- 
pany to find their hands also to Captain Martin's certificate contra- 
dicting the act of the great court wherein themselves were the prin- 
cipal directors. 

'■ Moreover, the said inconveniences have been lately satisfied viva 
voce before the Company, in open court. 

"Lastly, the Company have and do always offer to grant the said 
Captain Martin, upon surrender of his former, a new patent of all his 
land, with as large and ample privileges as any other hath, which 
favors all but himself have most willingly and thankfiilh' accepted. - 
"The said certificate of Capt. John Martin was subscribed with 
these names, viz.: 

" Pembroke, ^ Tho. Smith, '^ 

"Eo. Warwick,^ Fra. West.s 
"Leicester,^ Wm. St. John,^ 

"Montgomery,'* Robt, Johnson,^'* 
"Sheffield,^ Samuel Argall.ii 

"Ro. Mansell,<5 Wm. Canning.i2" ^r 



1 William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke, boru iu 1550, at Wilton, Wiltshire. Educated at 
Oxford. Installed Knight of the Garter in 1G04. Active member of the London Company until its 
dissolution. Chancellor University of Oxford, 162G. Pembroke College bears his name.— Neill's 
" Virginia Vetusta," p. 72. 

2 His father, Lord Rich, the first earl of AVarwick, married Penelope Devereux, sister of the 
brilliant and miserable Earl of Essex, in IGIS, a few months before his death. Robert, the second 
earl, she claimed as her son by Rich, born out of wedlock. She made no secret of her infidelities. 

3 Robert Sydney, Lord Lisle, in 1618 made Earl of Leicester, the father of Algernon Sydney, and 
Dorothy, the "Sacharissa"of the poet Waller. 

4 Philip Herbert, the Earl of Montgomery, the younger brother of Pembroke. 

5 Edmund, Lord ShelHeld, had been a commander in the reign of Elizabeth. Charles the First 
-made him Earl of Mulgrave. 

6 Sir Robert Mansell was vice admiral and treasurer of the navy. By a patent, in 1624, he im- 
proved the manufacture of glass. For many years he was a director of the East India Company. 

7 Sir Thomas Smith was president of the Virginia Company of London, from its incorporation 
in 1606, until 1619. On the thirtieth of January, 161S, O. S., his elegant residence at Deptford was 
burned. His Loudon house was in Philpot Lane. His eldest son, Sir John, married Isabel, daugh- 
ter of Robert, Earl of Warwick. 

8 Francis West, brother of Thomas, Lord Delaware, came to Virginia in 1608, and was, for a 
.«hort period, its governor. 



The Alleged King's Forest. 151 

The minutes of the company add: "Which declaration being read 
and some words altered that might fit it to the quality of those who 
were no lords, that had subscribed to the said certificate, and after put 
to the question, was well approved of; and order given to the secre- 
tary to make divers coj^ies thereof, the court entreating Sir John 
Danvers, and Mr. Tomlins to deliver unto such lords as had sub- 
scribed thereunto a particular copy of the company's answer to the 
said certificate, as also unto the Master of Requests, which they were 
pleased to undertake." 

Lord Cavendish, on the fifth of June, 1622, 0. S., told the London 
Company that he had presented to the King their answer to Captain 
Martin's complaints, and requested certain referees of the Privy Coun- 
cil. On the nineteenth of June, Deputy Ferrar mentioned that he had 
been before Sir Christopher Perkins, one of the masters of requests, to 
answer the charge that the privileges of Captain Martin's patent had 
been denied, and also that his Majesty had been kept from a tract of 
land set out by Sir Thomas Dale as the king's forest. The following 
answer of the council and company of Yirginia as to the king's 
forest was then adojDted : 

THE king's forest IN VIRGINIA. 

" The said Council and Company for answer thereunto, say : that 
they acknowledge no king of Virginia but King James, of, and under 
whom they hold, and not from King Poivhawfan, so named b}^ the 
petitioners. True it is, that for a permanent honor, as well to his 
Eoyal Majesty, the founder of that plantation, as also to his princely 
issue, they have named both their chief cities, as also other places 
must remarkable, with the names of his Majesty and of his children, ^ 
which they suppose doth no way alter the property of inheritance in 
whose places which his Majesty, by his letters-patent, under his great 
seal, hath granted to the said company for and throughout all Yir- 
sinia. 



1 Jamestown, Charles City, Heurico, and Elizabeth. 



9 Sir William St. John. 

10 Robert Johnson, alderman, and grocer of London; deputy under Sir Thomas Smith, when 
Tiead of the company. 

11 Samuel Argall, when governor of Virginia, associated with the Eirl of Warwick in the slave 
trade. 

12 Canning was a friend of Argall and John Martin. 



152 Macalester College Contkibutions. 

" Touching the King's forest, so named in the i)etition, it is a name 
happily known to Captain Martin and his associates, but not to the 
Comj^any, and in the circuit of that territory they are pleased to call 
the Forest, are placed James City in Virginia, and also the places of 
residence for the Governor and Council, and also divers others princi- 
pal plantations, and namely, that of the city of London. 

"Touching the deer; it is true that the whole country of Virginia 
is replenished with them, but as for the swine, they are no other than 
the breed of such as have been transported thither by the Company, 
and it is strange unto them that Captain Martin, who is said to have 
ruined as well his own estate (if ever he had any), as also the estate 
of others who put him in trust, namely Captain Bargrave, and Avho 
made his own territory a receptacle of vagabonds and bankrupts, and 
other disorderly jDcrsons, and whereof there hath been made public 
complaint, and who is famous for nothing but all sorts of base condi- 
tions, so published in print by the relations of the proceedings in Vir- 
ginia, above ten years since, and who, for the said conditions, was 
displaced by the Lord DeLewarr from being of the Council, as a most 
unworthy person, and who hath presented, of his own authority (no 
way derived from his Majesty), to give unjust sentence of death upon 
divers of his Majesty's subjects, and seen the same put into execution, 
should dare to offer himself to his sacred Majesty as an agent, either 
for matter of good husbandry, or good order." ^ 

Capt. AVilliam Pierce, of Jamestown, whose daughter was the widow 
of John Eolfe of Pocahontas notoriety, was present when this report 
was made, and he said that he had, as governor of Jamestown, deliv- 
ered warrants to the marshal, to be served upon men living loosely 
within Captain Martin's plantation, and that Martiu '-'resisted the 
officer, drew arms upon, and would not suffer him to execute the said 
warrants." Possingham, a nephew of Governor Yeardley, confirmed 
this statement, as did two other planters, John Jefferson and William 
Capps. 

Men of influence began to lose confidence in Martin after this ex- 
posure, and he appeared more willing to cease his opposition to the 
company. On the ninth of December, 1622, he wrote the following 
to his brother-in-laAv, the able jurist Sir Julius Csesar, and as it has- 
never before been printed, the spelling of the original, now in the= 
British Museum, is retained : 

1 Neill's "Virginia Company," p. 312. 



Outline of Proposed Government. 153 

letter to sir julius cesar. 

" Imprimis, That 3'our honour would be pleased to order that my 
ould Patent may be brought in and deliuered to your honour's hands. 

"The manner ofeuerie heareinge as I understand it Is either the ad- 
uersarie or my selfe that must begyn. 

"First, I desire my greiuanees to be spoken of, but desire yt they 
might first begyn to speake. If they begj'n they will deliver the 
wrongs donn by me to the publique. 

" If I begyn I shall deliuer my seruices donn at large, they wrono-s 
that I haue endured in particular as well in reputacion as in estate. 

"Howe I hauc fortified my selfe, by my longe seruice and miserable 
endurances and greate charge with a Pattent granted from the Com- 
panie accordinge to the Kinge's letters Pattents, which I hould for my 
seruice don, which noe newe or late comer can moritt or challeno-e. 

"Further I am purposed as I shall find occacion to fall to an offer 
(videlicet). 

"That if they thinke mj^enioyinge of the King's favorable grant be 
a rupture in their manner of graunts then lett them giue me a fitt 
recorapence somewa}' answerable to my tyme, labours and losse. 
Then I will be contented to dye in peace at home. 

"If otherwise, that I may be permitted as a seruant to the Kino-e and 
Companie to be frendl}' and loueingly settled as well with reputacion 
as with estate That I may there serue them with grace and benefitt 
and dyeing leaue that 3-ou haue grauntcd quietlie and in good secu- 
ritie, whereby I may satisfie those to whome I am engaged, soe shall 
I be free from further pressure or 3'mpeachinge the policie of gouer- 
ment and to subsist." ^ 

•With Sir Thomas Smith, Alderman Robert Johnson, a o-rocer of 
London, Capt. Samuel Argall and a few others, through the Privy 
Council, Martin strove to have the London Company's charter revoked. 
On the fifteenth of December, 1622, he prepared the followino-; 

OUTLINE OF A GOVERNMENT FOR VIRGINIA. 

"The manner howe Virginia if his Majestie and his Counsel! and 
company agree may be made a Royall plantation for god's glory, his 
Majesties and Eoyall progenyes euer happines and the Companies 
exceedinge good, and all this land shall receive dalye profitt thereb}-. 

1 Add. M. S. British Museum, 12,496 Copy of original in M.icalester College Reference Librarr. 



154 Macalester College Contributions. 

"That parte of Virginia within which we are seated and fitt to be 
settled on for many hundred yeares Is within the Territories of Opi- 
chanlvano, it lyeth on the west side of Chesepeoeks baye, whoe com- 
manndeth from the southei-most parte of the first Eiuer to the south- 
ermost parte of the fourth Eiuer called Patomeck which lyeth north, 
next hand to our Eiuer somme 50 leagues in Latitude. In Longitude 
it extendeth to ye Monakins Countrie, next hand west and west and 
b}' north of equall length with the Latytude : his owne prineipall 
seate is myne seacond Eiuer called Paumunkey in the harte 
of his owne Inhabited territories. This Eeuolted Indian Kinge in 
this square comanndeth 32 Kingdoms under him. Euerj^e King- 
dome contayneinge the quantitie of one of our shcires here in Eng- 
land. 

"Euerie such Kingdome hath one especiall towne seated uppon one 
of the three greate Eiuers with sufficiencie of cleared ground fitt for 
the plough and brauely accomodated for fishinge. These three Eiu- 
ers nauigable and fitt to Intertayne greate shippinge, soe is the fourth. 

" All accommodats for yt buysnes and for Tanner's skynns and bids 
to tann sufficient and all things fittinge their trade there, as barke, 
lyme, and fitting tymber in all places for fatts and other uses. 

"One furnas to be built at the generall charge of the Countrie and 
Companie here for the castinge of ordnance, potts and other necessa- 
ries withal lawe to be made 3^t none be carried out of the land uppon 
payne of death and confiscation of shippe and goods without expresse 
warrant from His Majestic or successors. 

'•Thus those seuerall townes yet notposessed beinge seised on at once, 
and this gouennent established before spoken of This parte of his 
Majesties domynions there will quickly furnish this land of England 
with good store of Iron, shippinge and Infinite other Comodities dis- 
couered and yet ondiscouered. 

'•Shipps to be built there and their bulkes fylled with seuerall com- 
modities and sent ouer here to be sould, thereb}^ there will redound 
an unspeakable commoditie, the passage from thence being so short- 

"His Majesties Customes being there taken and gathered in before 
they be dispersed into shipps that usually alreadie carrie our commo- 
dities for the Strayts, Spayne, Newfoundland and other places can not 
in verie few yeares be lesse worth then 40,000 li. sterlinge yearely, 
rekoning it after the proporcion may nowe be with willingness yield- 
ed and payd by the Inhabitants nowe dwelling alreadie there. 



Martin's Proposed Government. 155 

"Nowe if it shall please his highnes the Counsell and companie at 
once so to order that so many sheirs in England may send ouer lOO 
men a peece to posesse their 32 Sheirs as seruants unto them furnished 
out by them and Hue under the command of sommQ Noble Generall 
fitt for so Royall a plantaeion Their Sheirs may in one yeare with 
o-od's blessinge have their principall stock agayne, and some advan- 
tage to supplie more unto them and euer after subsist of them selves, 
and yearely send ouer good store of commodities to increase their 
severall Sheirs with fresh supplies and much gayne, and they neuer 

at further charge. , ,n •, , . 

"Euerie Seruant soe goeinge ouer att their iearme ended to be as- 
tennants coppiehouldersor freehoulders as shall be made in their agree 
mente when they goe ouer. 

"Euerie Sheire in England to make choise of some worthie gentleman- 
that his Majestie may thinke fitt and the Companie allovve of to be a 
deputie Leikennant to gouerne these people in their severall Sheirs. 

'• Those deputie Leiftenannts to have other sufficient men under them 
fitt to be Justices of Peace there and other officers under them as her© 
in England 

"Euerie Sheire to take notise yt they send so many men as may 
furnish a Blommarie for the makeing of Iron, Tanners for the tan- 
nyng of leather, Shippwrights and weauers the rest husbandmen and 
all other trades they can fitt for in all the Countrie they shall haue 
Iron ore and all uoluntariesyt will goe ouer uppon their owne charges 
with Commission from the Company to be equallie divided into their 
seuerall Sheirs and their land there to be allotted them by order from 
the deputie or generall to the deputie leiftennants of euery Sheire. 

" Thus this parte of the Countrie beinge possessed, it will not onely 
quite frustrate and disable the Indians our enymies euer to subsist of 
themselves, but force them to haue their dependancie uppon us for 
foode and clothinge which their Industrie will well acquite to the 
whole Ivingdome in short space, And all ther borderlie Kingdoms, 
seinge their uillanyes and trecheries so rewarded wil be euer affrayde 
to enterprise the like against our nation when it shall so increase that 
they must stretch further ther posessions and territories. 

"Now it resteth how if it pleasethGod yt this manner of plantation 
be thus settled to demonstrate an honourable or noble person that 
shal be appointed Deputipor Generall may be uoblyo transported and 



156 Macalester College Contributions. 

there brauely seated with out his owne charge or the charge of the 
Company. First to haue appointed him by his Majesties Counsell 
and Companie two seates, the first in Opichankanos Island in Pau- 
mannkey riuer, beinge in the harte of the most of the 32 Sheires. 

" The seacond at Okanahone Eiuer where would be fitter to be a 
plantacion for many reasons I can all edge, then on the Easterne shore, 
as they nowe are planted. 

"His ]\fajestie to be graciously pleased to authorize this honourable 
person chosen to be deputie or Generall to Knight as the deputie of 

Ireland doth. 

" Then their deputies Leiftennants to be Knighted and the bene- 
fitt to redound to the deputie or Generall, and all other yt shal be 
thought worthie. 

"An order to be sett downe which I Knowe yt all the Inhabitants 
allreadie wilbe willinge to condiscend unto, that euerye Sheire shall 
send unto the Deputie or Generall att such tymc as he shall sett his 
Corne, weede the same and gather it in tenn men for three dayes. 

"This will turne to Infinite benefitt unto him and noe damage to the 

•Sheires." 1 

At a meeting of the company on the second of February, 1622-.3, O. 
S., Sir John Brooke, of the Privy Council, afterward Lord Cobham, 
moved, in behalf of Capt. John Martin, that he might receive a new 
patent with privileges as ample as those granted to iiny, and the re- 
quest received a general assent. On the second of next April, Martin 
'■ declared with much thanks his humble acceptance of the patent, " 
audit was arranged that the lands might be selected within the lim- 
its of the old Martin-Brandon plantation. 

The London Company were compelled to be gracious. The Earl 
of Warwick, and Sir Thomas Smith, its former head, were in sym- 
pathy with Martin, and his brotherin-law, Sir Julius Caesar, master 
of the rolls, was a member of the Privy Council. They had succeeded 
in prejudicing the King, on the ground that the company was popular 
in its form of government. To which objection the following answer 
was given, worthy of English freemen. 

"It is true, that according to your Majesty's instructions in their 
letters patent, the Government hath some shew of a democratic form 



1 Add. M S. British Museum. Copy of origunl in Macalester Reference Library. 



London Company Democratic in Form. 157 

which is, in this case, the most just and most profitable, and the most 
apt means to work the ends and effects desired by your Majesty for 
the benefit, wealth, and increase of those plantations, by which the 
profit of your Majesty, the adventurer, and planter will rise together. 

" Most just, because these plantations, though furthered much b^^ 
your Majesty's grace, yet not being made at your Majesty's charge 
and expense, but chiefly by the private purses of the adyenturers, 
they would never had adventured in such an action, wherein they in- 
terest their fortunes, if in the regulating and governing their own 
business their own votes had been excluded. 

" And most profitable for the advancing on of the j^lantation, because 
of the great supplies which the necessities of the people there often 
require, and cannot be sent, but, by the purses of many, which, if a 
few had the managing of the business would, and that not without 
reason, leave them unsupplied; and, whereas they cry out against 
democracy, and call for oligarchy, they make out the government 
there of better form, or more monarchical. 

" And to discern what is the judgment ot a Company, if there be not 
unanimity, there is no way but by pluralit}^ of voices, and if plurality 
of voices were not, there would scarcely at any time, in any point, be 
unanimity in an}- assembly, that unanimity that is proceeding for the 
most part from despair of prevailing in their private opinions, or from 
shame to discover opposition to public good." 

Their professions of loyalty, however, were of no avail, as will be 
seen by the following letter of Henry Montagu, Lord Mandeville, 
formerly Chief Justice of the King's Bench, now President of the Privy 
Council, on the seventeenth of October, 1623, addressed to the King's 
secretary ; 

LETTER OF LORD MANDEVILLE. 

"Acquaint his Majesty, that those of the Virginia Company were 
this day, before the lords, to give answer whether they would sur- 
render up their old patent or no. That nothing should be mistaken 
by them, I have punctually set down to them in writing, the altera- 
tions his Majesty intended, which was to change not only the frame 
of the government, and manner of the plantations for the good of the 
people, but to have every private man's interest preserved, and to be 
secured if it was defective. 



158 Macalester College Contributions. 

"The Company this da}^ delivered in an answer, answerable to 
their former doing, and say they can give no answer touching the 
yielding, for the present, until they have had a quarter court. 

"This answer was so ill pleasing to my Lord, that, with rejDroach 
we have sent them back, and peremptorily prefixed unto them to 
bring us a direct answer on Monday next, when, if they should not 
offer the yielding up of that patent, then Mr. Attorney General is di- 
rected to take a course of resolving it." 

Early in November members of the company were served with 
process out of the King's Bench, by virtue of a quo warrmito, to know by 
what authority they claimed to be a company. The King also appointed 
commissioners to examine its affairs. At a regular quarterly meeting 
of the company, on the nineteenth of November, Dej)uty Nicholas 
Ferrar put the question, and, with only seven dissenting voices, i it 
was agreed not to surrender the old charter. 

On the second of February, 162.3-4, O. S., in view of the compro- 
mise effected with Capt. John Martin, the following letter, at the 
request of the King's commissioners, was prepared by the company 
for the Virginia colony: 

LETTER TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL OF VIRGINIA. 

"After our very hearty commendation, we cannot imagine but the 
report of some differences between us and Captain Martin have come 
to you, the ground whereof was his patent, to the reversing whereof, 
our care to the public good only persuaded us, and we conceive that 
nothing but the too much love thereof, esteeming it a great loss, 
transported him to some further opposition against the Company; but 
these things are now composed, and as we have granted him as ample 
a patent as we can, so we have forgotten with a silence, never to be 
remembered, all the passages thereof, and he now departs from us 
with the actual possession of our loves and a settled intention in us to 
offer him such further favors and benefits as we shall be able upon 
the settling of our affairs. 

" Wherefore we desire of you that he may be received with that re- 
spect and love as our earnest recommendations do require, and his 



1 Sir Samiul Argall, Sir Thomas Wroth, Capt. .John Martin, Mr. Canning, Mr. Woodall and two 
others. 



Charter of London Company Eevoked. 159 

ancient and continued endciivoi's, l)oth of pei'son and 2)ui'se, to the 
plantation do deserve, and in particular that the land and seat for 
merly possessed by him may be entirely restored unto him, as part of 
that divided by our new grant bestowed upon him, and that neither 
himself, nor any of his plantation, be drawn from their works except 
for the necessary defense, and such other important occasions as shall 
be for the public weal of the whole colony." 

The communication was signed Pembroke, Montgomery, Wm. Cav- 
endish, Rob. Killigrew, William Pagett, John Danvers, Humphrey 
May, John White and Nich. Ferrar, the company's deputy. 

On the sixteenth of June, 1624, the last day of the Trinity term of 
the King's Bench, Chief Justice Ley, called by Milton " the old man 
eloquent" in a sonnet addi-essed to the judge's daughter, "honoured 
Margaret," decided that the patent, or charter, of the company of 
English merchants trading to Virginia, and pretending to exercise a 
power and authority over his Majesty's good subjects there, should be 
thenceforth null and void. 

On the fifteenth of July the king appointed a large commission to 
administer the affairs of Virginia, of which Lord Mandeville was the 
head. In a letter to the king's secretary, Conway, he reports the 
preliminary proceedings as follows: 

" It will not be unpleasing to his Majesty to hear the proceedings 
upon the commission for Virginia. The commission being sealed but 
yesterday morning, in the afternoon we met at Sir Thomas Smyth's 
house. I find the gentlemen and merchants very hearty, and ready 
to afford all further aid to the work." 

This year, after a long absence, Captain Martin came to Virginia 
in the ship Susan, in 162-1:, but he could not secure the confidence of 
the colonists. In reply to the smooth, insincere letter sent from Lon- 
don, the governor and council, in a spirit of independence, wrote : 
" Cannot but praise the Company's charity in forgivfng the many 
foul injuries and slanders, some particulars of which they inclose, 
and of which Capt. Martin has boasted, and the government has been 
shaken and weakened" by the rumors which he spread. He had been 
designated by the king as one of the council, but on the fifteenth of 
June, 1625, he was suspended for the reason that " men of obnoxious 
characters should not be entrusted with any power, or command, 
within the Colony." 



160 Macalester College Contributions. 

After this, he appears to have retired to Martin-Brandon greatly 
humiliated. The following letter to his brother-in-law, Sir Julius 
Ctesar, dated eighth of March, 1626-7, has been preserved in the 
British Museum :i 

LETTER OF CAPT. JOHN MARTIN. 

" KiGiiT Honorable : I receved your lovinge letters the 17 of feb- 
ruaiye by my deere and lovinge cossen Richard Martin, whoes arivall 
att my plantation together withe so greate a token of your exceed- 
inge love towardes me and him was noe smale comforte unto me, be- 
inge the daye after the greatest disaster y*^ ever happened unto me 
in all my dayes, and one of the miracolous deliverances of the Al- 
mighty God shewed and extended to me a poore sinfuU wretche that 
ever was sene or harde of, his blessed name be ever Glorified. The 
particular thereof I am loth to wright, but rather leve it to the rela- 
tion of this Right worthy Captayn Prinne^ whoes eyes hathe sene 
bothe the manner, and how, it was withe me. This worthye gentle- 
man if for my sake your Honaor grace and further as also for his 
owne worthy zeale to y« Noble Countrey, twise havinge att his greate 
charge both relived this countrey bothe withe good and houldsoum 
supplyments not excoriatinge the people as others most shamefully 
have done. Your Honnor shall doe God honnor, bo a greate Incorager 
of others to do the lyke, and as 1 am bounde, so shall ever rest 
obliged to praye for your ever hapines, which in my sinfull prayers 
doe never neglect: for my owne particular estate I have suffitient 
though not sujieraboundant to live withe and to I'elyve my poore 
wife and all the creditors I am Indetted unto, if most unjustly my 
goods weare not detayned from me here, wherefore I moste Humbl}' 
begge and crave att your Honnor's handesy^ you woulde be pleased by 
the meanes of his Maiesty and his Honorable Lordes of his Maiestj^e's 
privie Counsell y*^ I maye obtayn from his Maiesty and them so gra- 
tious a favor as y'' I maye have a mandatorye Letter or Comission to 
our Governor and Counsell heere y* accordinge to order and acte made 
by our Late soveraygne Kinge and his Majesty's most Honorable 
Counsell, y' look whoe did consent to the delyverey of the extorted 



1 Copy in Macalester College Reference Library. 

2 Captain John Preen, in the autumn of 1626, in the " Peter and John, " returned to Virginia 
with passengers, provisions, and ten barrels of powder for the use of the authorities. 



Martin's Complaint to Sir Julius C.tisar. 161 

and unjust pattcnls by the late Company withe out suite should 
Injoy ail suche right and pi-ivilcg-os as in former time they had In- 
joyed I as your Honor and the rest of the Honorable Lords was most 
forward therein, doe moste Humbly Crave y' by this comission I 
maye hould my lands and privileges formerly granted and manye 
yeares Injoyed by me hertofore shamofullye debarred in S^ Francis 
Viatt time, and George Sandes the Tresurer's, whoe made noe more 
accounte of y" Lord's Letters than if it had come from the meanest 
men in England. Sandis darynge to speake openly in theyr Parle- 
ment y' att all times, for tenn peces given to a secretary he could 
have such a letter, and whatt oppression I have suffered, God, and 
the whole Countrey would testetie for me ; this gentleman if he be 
called to accounte will relate I thinke somewhat he he[a]rethe by the 
uoyse of the countrey ; secondly y^ fbere maye in that comission be 
inserted y* in regard that it was hertofor his Majesty's expresse or- 
der by his Royall Articles under his handes and Privie Signett y* his 
Maiesty's subjectes myght have tryalls in suites by verditt of twelve 
honnest suffityent men, that I may have fayre heering and the same 
tryall for all suche goods and dettes as are unjustly detayned from 
me by the verditt of twelve of the antients Planters, so yt the 
Bnvie of some, the Ignorance of others, may be disapoynted whoe 
by theyer gretenes here think to kepe me miserable poore, though 
they swime in wealth. And lastel}^ whereas I was elected and 
chosen and by his Royall Maiesty deseased was by your Honorable 
Letters here appoynted to looke and take order for the said office, I 
am not only debarred from the execution of the place, but allso bye 
grevinge to see in what miserable case the countrey liethe in, by 
reson the countrey is unfortefied, the ordinance unmounted, many in 
danger to be spoyled by the Indians; the great ones will doe noth- 
inge in or about them nor allowe me meanes to satisfie men that 
shuld labor about them. If his Maiesty and his Right Honorable 
Counsell thinke fittinge I shall hould the place to take such order by 
theyr newe comission that I maye, as I am reddy, and the Countrey 
most willinge to contribute towards the charge to doe somcwhatt for 
the greate distress this Countrey lieth in danger therbj- . Theyse 
Honnorable favors if your Honnor shall please to take to harte, and 
to farther with all convenient speed I and all myne shalbebounde for 
ever to you and this Countrey will I am sure acknowlege ther dutyes 



162 



Macalester College Contributions. 



to your Honnoryt they muye live somwhat more socurly from for- 
rayn enimies. Thus desieringe the the greate Jehovath to bless you 
and yours withe all worly, but espetially, with all hevenly blessinges, 
I most humbly take my leave and rest 

'■ Your Honnors ever faythefuU 

" brother in lawe att commande." 





APPENDIX. 



CONDITION OF AFFAIRS, IN 1623, IN VIRGINIA. 



The Duke of Manchester, in 1804, published a selection from the 
manuscripts, in the ancestral librar}- at Kimbolton Castle, and among 
these is a letter of George Sandys, also spelled Sandis, the poet, then 
colonial treasurer at Jamestown, addressed to Deputj' Ferrar of the 
London Company: 

LETTER OF GEORGE SANDIS. 

"Worthy Sir: I have sent 3'ou the copy of my letter by the 
' Hopewell,' how copied I know not, for I have not the leisure to pe- 
ruse it. Of your debts, and the tobacco due for the sale of their [the 
servants] times, which belonged to Sir William Nuce,i of whom three 



1 Sir William Newce had served as a captain against the Spaniards; in IC.IS, was mayor of l!aii- 
don, Ireland. Beeanse he " had ever been exercised in military affairs," he was appointed marshal 
for Virginia. He arrived in October, 1G22, and did not survive but a few days. 



164 Macalester College Contributions. 

are alive, I can but receive a hundred weight which I am ashamed to 
send you single. Same fault which most hi}' to the tardy receipt of 

your accounts, which I have been importuned I have desired 

arrest, and distrained on the goods of others. 

"But the country is so empty of tobacco that no present satisfaction 
will be given. Let it be accounted my fault if you have it not the 
year following, with arrearages, for I will trust no more to prom- 
ises, but seek on their crops before any are distributed. The like 
council I gave Mr. Blaney^ the last year, but he trusted too much un- 
to those who had never, formerly, failed him. Lieutenant Karr hath 
taken order in England to pay you the fifty pounds which he owes. 
I have been in Kiccowtan to order your affairs in that place. Cap- 
tain Nuce'-^ died very poor; he had no crop of tobacco this year, nor 
have any of the tenants hardly a grain of corn to sustain them. It 
was alleged that most was sjjent in relieving of those that came 
thither for succor, but they lay all to the short provisions sent with 
them, by which means they depart with most of their corn as soon 
as it is reaped, to discharge their borrowings. And before the com- 
panies' tenants are planted upon your barrenest places in all the 
country, by reason of your affecting of clear places, ground which is 
generally worn out, and ungrateful to your planters. 

"Captain Whitaker^ lost yearly his labor in the place where he was 
seated ; of him I received eighteen hundred weight, which, with twenty 
more I paid to Mr. Cle^^borne^ for his wages according to your agree- 
ment. He is now at Kiccowtan, drawn thither by Captain Nuce a 
little before his death. I have disposed of things there in this man- 
ner; I have taken Capt. Whitaker bound to pay you for the tenants, 
together with those he formerly commanded, a hundred weight of 



1 Edward Blaiiey, keeper of the colony magazine, a good business man, and a councillor under 
Yeardley, in 1626. 

2 Capt. Thomas Nuce, or Newce, a brother of Sir William, was a member of the council in 1622, 
and was deputy in charge of the company's lands, and resided at Elizabeth City. His wife was a 
charitable person, and as a widow, " left desolate and comfortless in a strange country, far from all 
her friends" received the sympathy of the colonists. 

3 Jabez Whitaker is supposed to be the Jabez who was a half brother of the Rev. Alexan- 
der Whitaker of Henrico. He was of no good example as to teiuperance, and was a member of the 
council of 1626, under Gov. Yeardley. 

4 William Cleyborne, or Claiborne, surveyor, afterward prominent in the history of Virginia and 
Maryland. His father was Edward, and grandfather, Robert, of Cleborne Hall, not far from Ponreth, 
England. 



Letter of George Sandis. 165 

the best tobacco a num, and tifteen bushels of corn, besides a light 
proportion for themselves, which is as gi-eat a rate as an}- do give, and 
more than most men can make. 

"Captain ^Yilcoxl pays twenty weight less a man being compounded 
with before. A Captain Smyth^ shall pay, if he have this, as much 
as the most. By these means you will have a constant rent equal 
the o-ettings of private planters. The tenants who belong to Capt. 
Nuce, his place, I have suffered his widow, provided it be allowed by 
you, to enjoy this year, not for charity only, although she hath noth- 
ing left to sustain her, and her poor child, her husband having sold 
his lands to furnish himself for this place, she being a woman of good 
birth and better condition; but partly out of right, in that he lived a 
good part of the year, and partly out of necessity, the}' having no 
corn, and none able to help them with any, the 'Sea Flower' not yet 
arrived-^ so they must have famished, or by shifting abroad returned 
vou no profit. You may hereafter have the charge of a deputy, who 
can no waj' advantage you. I have sent you here enclosed the names 
of all your tenants living. With the times past I will have nothing 
to do, but for the future I doubt not to give you contentment. 

"Your Pinnace lies like a wreck at Elizabeth city, who hath brought 
in this year no less than 1,800 bushels of corn, and yet, strange to 
say, not any of the colony so near starving as the}-. I sent Nun 
with his followers, of whom none deserve the name of shipwright, to 
renew her, who write me word that one hundred and fifty pounds 
would not repair her, which was as much, if not more, than the cost; 
but one having offered to buy her, I suspected some knavery, and 
iipon my coming down had her exactly searched and found that no 
great matter would renew her, so that I have set both them and 
others upon her; yet sails and tackling we shall want except you 
siipply us, and I doubt not to employ her to your satisfaction. 

"The Venerones [Vignerons] are placed together at Elizabeth 
City, altogether employed upon silk- worms, that we may presei-ve 



1 John Wilcox, ia 1622, was a member of the assembly. 

2 Capt. Koger Smith, second son of John Smith, of Nibley, Gloucestershire. Had served twelve 
years in the wars of the Netherlands. In 1626 he was a member of the council. 

3 The Sea Flower, that spring, was accidentally blown up in the harbor of Bermudas. Several 
lives were lost. Subsequently a widow Jacob testified that by the disaster she lost a great chest and a 
black gown trimmed with fur. The Rev. Henry Jacob, of London, left for Virginia about this time. 
Mav he not have been lost in the Sea Flower? 



166 Macalester College Contributions. 

you some food, and send you home some silk this next year.i For 
your planters are so busied in rebuildini^ and preparing their grounds 
that few at this time can or will attend them; yet for my own part, 
I have set four to do nothing else but prepare the chamber wherein 
I lie at Lieutenant Pierce's, ^ the fairest in Virginia for that purpose. 

"I here the Frenchmen's times come out the next year; you must 
use the means to procure their stay and send more of their quality, if 
you would have that work go really forward. Since my last letter I 
have sent my shallop with with my servants as far almost as the 

Falls, 3 for sand for the glassmen and since to Cape when 

they light of that which they like; however, send us three or four 
hogsheads from England. 

"All your servants we send, which you must supply, for the charge 
is intolerable to hire them, with which their provisions lie all upon 
me, that are not able to feed my own family. And to give a greater 
blow to our necessities, the Tygar* sent forth and trading with Mr. 
Piuntis' Pinnace,^ and Captain Spillman, a man wary enough hereto- 
fore, and acquainted with their treacheries, not only returned empty, 
but twenty-six men, armed sufficient to defend themselves from 500 
Indians, and cut off or taken prisoners, either by ambush or too much 
credulity, for as yet we know not the certaint}". The ship attacked 



1 The London Company wrote to the Virginia governor and council, in 1621, that about the mid- 
dle of October they expected to send, in the ship Duty, silk-worm seed, vine plants, and Frenchmen 
skilled in the silk-worm business. Thesuperintendent of the king's silk-worms, at Oatland, a French- 
man named .John Bonnoel, often spelled Bonnell, prepared a treatise on silk making, which was 
published by the company and distributed in Virginia. 

2 William Pierce, of Jamestown, was the father-in-law of the noted John Rolfe. He was a man 
of experience, industry, and capacity, and, for a time, governor of Jamestown. His wife, in a gar- 
den of three or four acres, in one year, raised a hundred bushels of figs. John Rolfe's last wife was 
his daughter Jane ; his first wife, Rolfe married in England before coming to Virginia. Rolfe died 
in March, 1622, and left "two small children of tender age." 

3 Near Riclimond. 

4 The Tiger, a small vessel of forty five tons, had an eventful history. Near North Cape it 
had been captured by the Turks. Patrick Copland, in a sermon before the Virginia Company, of 
London, at Bow church, on April 18, 1622, said : " When this your Tiger had fallen into the hands of 
tliose merciless Turks, who had taken from them most of their victuals, an ' all of their serviceable 
sails, tackling and anchors, and had not left them so much as an hour-glass or compass to steer their 
course, thereby utterly disabling them; when I say God had ransomed her, by another sail which 
they espied, and brought her safely to Virginia, with all her people, two English boys only excepted, 
for which the Turks gave tliem two otliers. a French youth and an Irish; was not here the presence 
of God printed as it were in folio, on royal crown paper, and capital letters?" For a full notice of 
Copland's Sermon see Neill's English Colonization of America, Strahan & Co., London, 1871. 

5 John Pountis, one of the council of Virginia, and vice admiral. He was a cousin of Sir Thomas 
Merry, and, soon after this letter was written, died on a voyage to England. 



Duppa's JUd Beer. 167 

by tbroe score canoes, not above five of tbe seamen abroad, l)nt were 
dispersed by tbeir ordnance.^ 

"So that if tlie Sea Flower come not quickly in, there will hardly 
be found a preservation against famine, and by the way to our so lit- 
tle discontentment, we having with great expense sent out that ship 
to Somers Island for furnishing the country with their fruits; in fruit 
you have given your reputation to another. >S'/c oos, non vobis. 

"Since our <i-eneral letter we have renewed the place where we are 
going now to erect our fort,^ naturally almost entrenched with deep 
ditches, which, by the grace of Grod, shall not want our utmost en- 
deavours in the furnishing. We shall need great ordnance, — culver- 
ing and demi-culvering at the least. And if God shall prosper us, we 
will frame a platform hereafter, and sink it on the opposite flat, large 
enouo-h to contain five or six pieces, and thei'eby make the passage 
more unpassable by our enemy. 

"For silk, grass, earth, varieties, etc., it is impossible for me this 
year, for reasons of the troubles, and want of means, to send you any. 
But if I can make the Pinnace manageable, and furnish her, you 
shall never have reason to complain in that kind. It would but 
please the country to hear that you had taken revenge of Dupper^ 
for his stinking beer, with what in my conscience hath been the 
death of two hundred. 

"You have emplo3'ed a strange Purser, and without wit or out of 
his wits, who hath lost much, and never delivered a great part of his 
goods, throwing them upon the shore, scarce above high-water mark, 

1 The trading vessels, on the twenty-third of March, were attacked by theAnacostan band of 
Indians who dwelt on the shores of the Potomac, where the city of Washington is now built. Henry 
Spilman, when a youth, was left, by Capt. John Smith, with the Indians, and lived withthem.for 
some time. He was the son of Sir Henry Spilman, and killed in the affray. A relation of Virginia, 
prepared by him, was, in 1S72, first printed at the Chiswick Press, London. Henry Fleet, one of the 
trading company, was taken prisoner and held for several years. He was a trader on the upper Po- 
tomac when Lord Baltimore's colony settled Maryland, and under his advice the colonists settled at 
Saint Mary. His journal was first printed in Neill's " English Colonization of America." 

2 Captain Each, of the Abigail, contracted with the London Company "to lay his ship near 
Blunt Point, and erect upon the oyster banks" a block house or fort. Governor Wyatt wrote that 
the project was not practicable and " if there liad been men in the ship of sufficient skill the great 
charge of the ship would have eaten the colonists up to the bone." Captain Each soon died and the 
building was^abandoned. 

3 Jeft'rey\)uppa was a London brewer. On .Line 18, 1G23, the owners of the Abigail informed 
the London Company that they understood "a great part of the beer was bad, and endamaged the 
people's health; that the beer was bought of Mr. Dupper, who had received of them a great price for 
it." They asked for an investigation, to clear themselves, and that proceedings might be instituted 
"against Mr. Dupper."— Neill's " Virginia Company," p. 379. 



168 Macalester College Contributions. 

without informing anj' or setting any to guard them. But Mr. Tuck 
deserves your thanks and our commendations. Great are the likeli- 
hoods of the vicinity of the South Sea, by a general report of* the In- 
dians, the mountains being, as they say, not above four days' journey 
above the Falls, the}^ two days over and reviews of the other side, 
thereunto of no great length. 

"If I were furnished with means^ I would willinglj^ adventure my 
life in that discovery, but we want provisions, and numbers of men; 
for such an attempt requires a general purse, and patient expectance 
if profit; and indeed these slow supplies, which hardly rebuild every 
year the decays of the former retain as only in a languishing state, 
and ourselves from carrying of puterprise of moment. As this is in 
the greater, so it is in the lesser, for it is a great pity that a territory 
as Martin's Hundred^ should be no better followed, by which they cer- 
tainly lose what they have already ventured, who might with a for- 
ward hand secure that fear, and raise to themselves an undoubted 
profit, besides the honour and the example. It doth grieve me much 
that your noble disposition and burning zeal to the good of this place 
should encounter with such disheartening, and be burthened with so 
many engagements, but I hope ere long, we shall remove your first 
and free you from the latter; wherein there shall be nothing wanting 
that lies in the endeavors of 

"Your devoted friend, 

"George Sandis."^ 

"The Newport News, April 8, 1623." 



1 Martin's Hundred should be distinguished from Martin-Brandon. It was on tlie opposite 
side of the James river. 

, 2 From the Tiger's captain, Nicholas Elfrey or Elfred, in Lefroy's Bermudas, in this: 
"To all Christian people to whom this present writing shall come greeting: 

"Knowe ye that whereas I, Captain Nicholas Elfrey, under God, Mr. of the good shippe called 
the rygre, being freighte with diures Passengers, and other goods and merchandize from London 
and bound for Virginia, by the waye, was t-Jken with the Turks' man of warre, and as the Turks 
were pillaging of us, this poor man Walter li'^li?, being miserably amongst them as a slave, made 
an escape from them, aboard our Shippe and hid himselfe, till they were gone, and then discovered 
himself. Whereuppon, passing still on our voyage to Virginia, I gave him meanes, among the rest of 
my men and goeing from Virginia to the Somers Island, and arriuing there safely, the said Walter, 
meeting with some of his countrymen, was solicited to stay with them, wch he earnestly desired at 
my hands, wch petition of his I freely grant. In witness whereof I Capt. Nicholas Elfred haue 
herewith set my hand the 9th daye of April An. Dom. 1622." 



